A Fun-Filled Friday at Fall Frenzy!
On October 26th, America SCORES New York held our annual Fall Frenzy at a brand new location--Riverbank State Park! With the help of Goldman Sachs Community Teamworks volunteers, we had an amazing mid-season celebration of poetry, soccer, and community with over 350 poet-athletes in attendance!
You can check out all the photos from the day on Facebook!
Teams from 12 schools, ranging from the Bronx to Brooklyn (and everywhere in between!), arrived at Riverbank with an abundance of energy to show their skills on the soccer field, express themselves in poetry, and reflect on their embodiment of commitment during the community art project!
Despite the late October chill, poet-athletes and coaches alike had an incredible time representing their communities and meeting fellow America SCORES New York teams from other parts of NYC!
With the girls taking to the fields first, half of the boys had the chance to join Brooklyn Program Coordinator Katie Carroll and Program Director Zach Gomes in the poetry corner. Our poet-athletes were eager to share their poems in this precursor to our annual Poetry SLAM on November 30th at A. Phillip Randolph High School and they did an excellent job!
"The poems I heard during Fall Frenzy were some of the most powerful and impressive I have ever heard from the young people in our program," said Gomes. "This is the first opportunity our poet athletes have to share their original poems in public and this year's Fall Frenzy was a clear indication that the Community Poetry SLAM! should prove to be amazing!"
The other half of the boys learned about the importance of commitment and how they can apply it to every aspect of SCORES during the community art project! Zahkiya Brown, the Senior Program Coordinator at PS 125, really appreciated the theme of commitment in the art project, saying,
"Teamwork, leadership and commitment are what the America SCORES poet-athletes stand by within this organization.The community art project was an amazing way to allow students to express what they are committed to, and the way our students all come together daily for practice, as well as for special events, shows the kind of community we are!"
And, of course, the soccer tournaments were a big hit! Teams were thrilled to meet teams they had never had the chance to play before and they were all sure to express fairplay both on and off the fields!
Soccer Program Manager Chloe Wheeler spent most of her time on the fields and had nothing but wonderful things about our Fall Frenzy Friday!
"Riverbank State Park was the perfect venue for such an eventful day, with poetry and a community art project providing a vibrant backdrop for soccer games," she said.
"Our referees from Goldman Sachs made the games seamless by opening each one with a pregame talk and a resounding America SCORES cheer to get our teams in the right mindset. They asked for input from each team on how fair play factors into the day before blowing the whistle for kickoff."
What stood out the most for her?
"The most meaningful part about the day was the unification of poetry and soccer," Wheeler recalls. "Teams performed their poems and cheered on other teams as they did the same, and then turned around to support their school on the soccer field. The feeling of community was evident throughout the whole day!"
After a fun-filled Fall Frenzy, our poet-athletes went home ready to take on the rest of the #fallSCORES season!
